Arshi Hossain

Generational Trauma: An Overview published in 2021 is written by John Christy Johnston, Peter Anto Johnson, Alyssa Wu, Rushmi Jamil, Yash Joshi, and Nazihah Alam. The list of editors include Austin Mardon, Kathryn Carson, and Sheher-Bano Ahmed. The print version takes up approximately 130 pages. The content is divided into ten chapters: What is Generational Trauma? What is the Study of Epigenetics? How did we come to understand the link between epigenetics and generational trauma? How do we study Epigenetics? How do we study Generational Trauma? What are Epigenetic Factors? What questions does the discovery of the link between events of history and generational trauma create? Why is it important to study Epigenetics? Does Generational Trauma Really Exist? How are epigenetic theories used in practice? Generational trauma is something that gets communicated very often especially when you look at socio-cultural and political trauma that is passed down through generations as results of colonialism and systemic structures. As a person of color, a member of the post-generational group that suffered under Britain’s colonialism, being the daughter of an immigrant mother, generational trauma is something that has continuously been invigorated between the relationship we share and is watered down in the interactions I share and the relationships I build with others. The subject is interesting to not just individuals like me but can be catered to many because we live in a world created by humans who have for generations hurted others and continue to do so, so in a less hopeful reflection, I wonder if there will ever be a society void of its presence and relevance. Generational Trauma: An Overview isolates the trauma that is transferred from generation to generation through biological and psychological means. The pages go beyond what is interchanged through casual communications by incorporating true physiological context into how intergenerational trauma shows up in different individuals. The chapters also look at PTSD and anxiety disorders for those that are interested in seeing its interrelation. Chapter three is quite interesting as it aims to connect and ground the relation shared between epigenetics and generational trauma. It specifically caters to the great nature vs. nurture debate and offers its findings surrounding it. The finding that our DNA can pass down generational trauma is something that I had been exposed to before in a university class. My professor had proposed that the reason why children had been afraid of monsters in their bedroom closets and under their beds because of trauma that showed up as very casual notions of PTSD that was passed down by generations from hundreds of years ago from when their ancestors lived in dark forests and were hunted by wild animals at night. Their ancestors had been frightened by beasts. Now whether or not this proposition had been entirely accurate, I hadn’t followed up on but chapter three of Generational Trauma: An Overview finds grounds for it and opens up an entire gateway to insights on epigenetics and generational trauma that isn’t covered on a large scale elsewhere as of yet. In conclusion, Generational Trauma: An Overview should definitely be on your read list if you’re interested in learning more about intergenerational trauma and the roots that it comes from and also grounds itself in - in current day. The language is not very complicated, although the reader should be at a level where they’re able to break down the scientific studies that are included within the pages.

E-Mental Health and the Modern Mind: Developments, Dangers, and Destruction is a text that discusses psychological well-being in a digital space; a digital space that encompasses any and all interactions, direct and indirect capacities to which electronic spaces affect. The book is a joint collaboration co-authored by Peter Anto Johnson, John Christy Johnson, Robert Mcweeny, Shawna Harline and edited by Austin Mardon and Catherine Mardon. The text is an average length, taking up 72 pages, with ten broken down chapters in addition to a well-rounded and summarizing introduction and conclusion. The authors bring up thought-provoking discussions like how illusioned and disassociated the digital world can be compared to the physical world when measuring how relentless or lenient and willing we are in passivity when we’re dealing with what we offer online. The authors bring up an interesting example concerning terms and conditions and how easily we ‘accept’ them when they’re presented to us. These terms and condition documents are in reality 30-40 pages if printed out. The reality and confirmation that in actuality, if presented with a legal document would almost never be signed in the matter of seconds with so much of a second glance. It paints a bigger picture of how vulnerable we truly are in the digital world. The value of being human seems to be quantified and determined within seconds, amounting to very little. So if this is true, and our value, not only to ourselves but also to companies and corporations feeding off what makes us, us, how do we procure and continue to develop an identity, a value system beyond that. How does that stop or hinder our self-growth and the conceptualizations of being an individual, being human? We become a commodity so easily transferred, bent, and donated to digital strangers. The authors also note how people that have internet addiction disorders face comparable changes physiologically to those who have drug addictions. “The brain’s volume decreases and both white and gray matter shrinks leading to loss of primary interests, emotional processing, and brain functioning” (Johnson et al. 2021). So, we can reframe my noted comment above pertaining to our willingness to indulge in the internet’s demands, looking specifically at how quickly we accept digital fine prints. Is it that we’re simply casual and careless when it comes to this, or are we in actuality not capable of it in the first place? There are various interesting and well-structured conversations surrounding individuals’ capacity to uphold our autonomies. The text also highlights other areas of thought including the sections and chapters, Physical and Psychological Health Effects, E-Mental Health and History: What can we learn from the past?, E-Mental Health Tools: TeleMedicine, VR and More, The Future of Mental Health in the Era of Covid-19, Privacy and Confidentiality, E-Mental Health and Stigma, Kids, Mobile Apps, and Generational Gaps, and Accessibility & Socioeconomics in E-Mental Health, and Common Conditions - Treatment, Diagnosis, Prognosis. With a wide array of stimulating critiques, discussions, and analysis, E-Mental Health and the Modern Mind: Developments, Dangers, and Destruction is a recommended text to study and read. Each conversation is supplemented with studies, research and quantifiable data that allows the reader to measure its impact.

Taking up around 150 pages, as the memoir’s title entails, Austin Mardon’s Seven Days in Moscow invites the reader to chronologically follow the narrator’s vacillating week-long visit from Alberta to Moscow. Despite the calm and inviting nature of the serene book cover featuring a quiet, whispering beach-front calling to the reader peering over a doorway, the main character, Austin Mardon unravels a tale that is anything but soundless. The short memoir begins with introducing us to Austin Mardon, a fanatic for meteorites concealed in ice; a passion leading him all the way to Moscow where he is invited to deliver a lecture and participate in an expedition to a largely unknown island called Franz Josef Land. With a backpack full of wonder, a passport full of curiosity, and a suitcase full of dreams, Austin leads the way to Moscow. There are two sides that speak to the reader. The first, being entrenched, swallowed whole, and later feeling its regurgitation of the significant historical context that takes up the pages of the memoir. For those who are not appreciative of historical background, fear not; Austin encapsulates and builds the background in digestible sizes that do not drive the reader away. With each detail of socio-political accounts, the plot freely moves forward delving deeper into its psychological-telling counterparts. With the dark picture that is painted of Moscow during these seven days, the reader experiences the city as an extension of both Austin’s clouded and lucid, lived and anticipated reality. During his visit, Austin is encountered and isolated by a suspicious Soviet intelligence agency. These encounters are special both in substance and execution, done ever so lightly at first; treading along the thinnest line, walking along the most unstable tightrope that creates the boundaries needed to separate attack from casual, curious questioning. What’s interesting about following the narrator is the reader is unable to fully conceive how reliable Austin is in his recounting of events and experiences. There’s a strong urgency in his thoughts, emotions and anticipations that heighten the level of anxiety within the reader, followed by immense lows in which the reader may feel falsely led on. Seven Days in Moscow recounts the stories of an individual struggling with trauma induced chain reactions and propels the reader to consider the likelihood and correlation between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and paranoia. Is Austin’s paranoia merely hypervigilance that heightens the events in Moscow? Objectively, the Soviet intelligence agency’s involvement and pursuit of Austin is true. The level of intensity intertwined and demonstrated through these acts of pursuit are left for the reader to dissect; to be pulled apart and examined, pinned to the dish in a science lab with its organs exposed. Seven Days in Moscow by Austin Mardon is an easy, and well written memoir. It invokes themes of survival, desperation, passion, hope and primary drivers of what shapes and propels human experiences. The memoir is well-suited for most age groups. Austin Mardon leaves a lasting impression on his readers and leaves room to anticipate his future works.